A new report finds that U.S. airlines remain way ahead of their foreign counterparts in the availability of in-flight Wi-Fi.

However, the Routehappy.com report also notes that the world’s airlines have quite a ways to go in offering what it calls the “best” Wi-Fi – i.e., “comparable to a home connection” in that it offers the highest speeds available and permits advanced media streaming.

“U.S. airlines continue to get closer to offering Wi-Fi on nearly every flight, a benefit of having started Wi-Fi rollouts earlier than airlines in most other regions,” Routehappy said. “Delta and United now have it installed on every single aircraft larger than 50-seat regional jets, while American is also closing in on this milestone. This is the result of multi-year installation programs, which are finally wrapping up.”

The company said that for U.S. airlines, 80 percent of available seat miles (ASMs) are now flown on Wi-Fi-equipped aircraft, compared with just 18.5 percent of ASMs on foreign airlines worldwide. (U.S. airlines that offer none at all include ultra-low-cost carriers like Frontier and Spirit, “which have no intention of rolling it out in the near future,” Routehappy said.)

In terms of quality, the company found that of equipped aircraft worldwide, only 7.2 percent offer the “best” product – an increase of just 1.2 points in the past year. Most aircraft (61 percent) provide what Routehappy calls “better” quality – i.e., capable of full web browsing and limited media streaming, while the rest have just basic service.

However, that should change fast. “While the overwhelming majority of flights operating with Best Wi-Fi today are found on JetBlue and some United flights, next-generation systems are now rapidly coming online, with major airline commitments announced more regularly than in prior years,” Routehappy said.

Source: Routehappy.com

“Gogo’s 2Ku system (i.e., an advanced satellite-based network) has recently launched with multiple major global airlines such as Delta, Aeromexico, and Virgin Atlantic. Inmarsat’s GX for Aviation is also in the beginning stages of going live to passengers. Deutsche Telekom’s high-speed air-to-ground network is being built throughout the European Union and UK, and British Airways will use this network starting in mid-2017; SAS and Finnair have also tapped Viasat for European Wi-Fi. All these systems are pending installation in thousands of aircraft. While equipment installation will take years to complete, by the end of 2017 flyers will see a big increase of Best Wi-Fi available to them.”

The deployment of these newer technologies means that in-fight Wi-Fi speed and quality “will dramatically improve” in the months and years ahead, the company said, and the cost to passengers should come down as well.

Looking just at long-haul flights – which Routehappy defines as more than 2,800 miles – the report says that only seven airlines now offer Wi-Fi on 100 percent of their flights: United, Delta, Iberia, Etihad, Icelandaor, Lufthansa and Singapore’s Scoot.

Passengers on a few United Airlines flights this week were the first to try out a new wraparound headset that provides a more immersive multimedia experience for in-flight streaming entertainment.

A company called Avegant produces the Glyph headsets, which can integrate seamlessly with streaming Wi-Fi programming. The testing took place to see exactly how the devices worked in-flight with United’s entertainment technology, and to gather feedback from passengers about the experience.

The company promises “an immersive 360-degree experience and side-by-side 3D in amazing detail,” along with superior audio quality through the headset’s padded earphones.

Headsets were handed out at the boarding gate. (Image: Avegant)

But it also stops short of what can be the disorienting view presented total virtual reality headsets. “The Avegant Glyph lets you see above and below the visual field, so you can easily orient yourself to your surroundings and not give up spatial awareness,” the company noted.

And it’s not just for in-flight use. The headset can plug into any HDMI-supported device for movies, gaming and other content, the company said.

Avegant is offering United travelers a 20 percent discount on the $549 headset if they order online by January 15.

After years of watching airlines pile on new fees for every imaginable service and amenity, it’s a little jarring to hear that they plan to start offering something for free. But that’s what’s happening with in-flight entertainment at Delta and United.

Delta said that by July 1, its Delta Studio selection of in-flight entertainment programming will be offered at no charge for all customers on its two-class aircraft, which includes 90 percent of its fleet.

The carrier said the Delta Studio selections – which provide up to 300 films, 750 TV shows, 100 foreign films, 2,400 music tracks, and live satellite TV on some planes – will be available via streaming to personal electronic devices on 1,000 aircraft, and through seat-back entertainment systems on 400 planes that have them. “Entertainment options will vary by aircraft type and route,” Delta said, with more details available at www.delta.com./studio.

Standard economy seats on some United jets get 9 inch screens- but most don’t have screens at all (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

Meanwhile, United is expanding free streaming entertainment to its newer 737s, a project that should be finished by the end of June. The service is already available on United’s A319s and A320s, and on many international aircraft.

United is moving away from seatback screen-based entertainment, although that will continue to be offered on older 737s, which also offer paid live DirecTV. United only offers free entertainment to those who have downloaded its app and watch on their own device. And in most cases, its aircraft do not offer in-seat power — and streaming drains batteries fast. This makes Delta’s free offering of seatback screens much better for everyone, especially those who don’t travel with appropriate devices…or extra batteries!

No word from American yet about similar moves toward free entertainment, although its new deals with competing Wi-Fi providers Gogo and ViaSat this month for satellite-based transmissions will bring high-speed streaming capabilities to its single-aisle domestic fleet in the years ahead.

As customers demand big improvements in in-flight Wi-Fi service, Delta said this week it plans to more than double the number of aircraft in its fleet that are equipped with the latest generation of high-speed satellite links, and to bring live streaming TV to those aircraft as well.

The airline said it will extend Wi-Fi vendor Gogo’s new 2Ku satellite-based technology to an additional 350 aircraft, giving it a total of 600 planes with the fast connections. What’s more, “In late 2016, Delta will launch IPTV, giving customers the ability to watch live TV from their own devices on 2Ku-enabled aircraft,” Delta said.

Wi-Fi technology is moving faster than most airlines can keep up. Delta has almost finished installing the first-generation satellite-based Ku band technology on its international widebody fleet of 747s, 767s, 777s and A330s as well as long-haul 757s.

But that is being superseded by Gogo’s 2Ku system, which Delta says “will offer customers faster speeds and bandwidth more than 20 times that of Gogo’s ATG (air-to-ground) technology, allowing for video streaming functionality.” Gogo started out by offering only land-based ATG links, but has had to transition to satellites to keep up with the competition.

The airline said it has already started to install 2Ku systems on its 737-800 and A319 fleets, “and additional fleets will be retrofitted with the new system.” It expects to offer 2Ku on 35 planes by the end of this year. The 2Ku Wi-Fi will also be available on the new A330-900Neos and A350-900s that Delta has on order for delivery over the next few years, the company said.

American will reduce the free checked bag allowance for some premium passengers. (Image: American)

In airline news briefs this week, American will change its checked-bag policy for premium travelers; Alaska makes a mileage program commitment; Delta expands its offering of front-cabin loungewear, and Virgin America will help business travelers learn while they fly.

American Airlines tells Travelskills that the company is changing its free checked bag policies for passengers in its premium cabins, effective for tickets bought March 29 or later, in an effort to bring American “in line with our U.S. competitors.” Instead of the current three free checked bags, AA will only allow two free checked bags in two-cabin aircraft, including domestic First Class and international Business Class. The change will not apply to AAdvantage Executive Platinums, who will still get three bags free, as will First Class passengers on three-cabin international flights.

While other big U.S. airlines have changed their loyalty programs over to spending-based instead of mileage-based models (or are planning to, like American), Alaska Airlines says it will not – at least, not in the immediate future Speaking at a JP Morgan investment conference this week, Alaska chief financial officer Brandon Pederson said that the airline will be “sticking with the traditional model” for its Mileage Plan program. But he added that he “wouldn’t say we would never go to that (a spending-based model).”

Delta’ just upped its game when it comes to inflight slumber (Image: Delta)

In December, Delta started offering a new amenity to passengers flying in its Delta One cabins from Los Angeles to Sydney and Shanghai – in-flight sleepwear/loungewear that they can change into to keep their clothes from getting wrinkled. And now Delta has expanded that perk. The light-gray PJs are now being offered to Delta One customers on flights from Seattle to Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong; and from Detroit to Shanghai and Beijing. They come in small/medium or large/extra large, and passengers can take them home after their flight.

The popular networking service LinkedIn is teaming up with Virgin America to offer free streaming in-flight video tutorials to passengers. Starting next month, Virgin customers will be able to watch business-oriented videos produced by Lynda.com, a company that LinkedIn purchased for $1.5 billion. Available through the airline’s in-fight entertainment system, the videos cover topics like Getting Things Done, Creating Great Workplace Habits, and Managing Stress.

JetBlue’s A320s (pictured) and some A321s will get new seating and tech improvements. (Image: JetBlue)

Passengers on JetBlue’s Airbus A320s and some of its A321s can expect to see more seats in the future, along with a more connected tech experience.

The airline said this week that it plans to increase the seat count in 15 of its “all-core” A321s (not including those transcontinental A321s equipped with Mint service, which will remain unchanged) from the current 190 to 200, while JetBlue’s 130 A320s will go from the current 150 seats to 162.

According to JetBlue, the increases in seat count will be made possible by the installation of a new galley/lavatory module developed by Airbus called the Space-Flex v2. Those installations “will free additional space” in the cabins, “requiring a reconfiguration of seating,” JetBlue said.

The airline did not say how the reconfiguration might impact seat pitch — currently 34 inches on A320s and 33 on A321s, except for seven extra-legroom rows with more — but it did say that its cabins will still boast “the most legroom in coach” compared to other U.S. airlines.

The aircraft will get new Pinnacle seats from BE Aerospace with moveable headrests, AC outlets and USB ports at every seat, as well as new LED cabin lighting systems.

Economy class on a Mint configured A321 – all JetBlue seats will soon have 10 inch monitors like these (Chris McGinnis)

Work on the A321s will start in the second half of this year, while the A320 overhaul will take place from 2017 to 2019.

JetBlue said the A320s will also get a technology overhaul that links their seatback TVs to the in-flight Wi-Fi service, and new seatback screens that will be 10-inch, high-definition models, almost twice as large as the current screens.

This will enable streaming TV entertainment through a system built on Google’s Android platform. JetBlue said the new system will mean “unlimited possibilities for custom app and widget development, live content streaming, audio-and-video-on-demand, and personal device pairing to offer more entertainment options than ever.” Besides the streaming content, JetBlue’s DirecTV service will increase from 36 to 100 channels, and its in-flight film library will be able to deliver 300 movies.

Passengers will have gate-to-gate access to JetBlue’s Fly-Fi high-speed wireless Internet service, offering speeds of 12 to 20 Mbps to each linked device, the airline noted.

Remember when flying used to be boring — when your diversions were limited to the in-flight magazine, the SkyMall catalogue, and a third-rate movie on a tiny ceiling screen several rows ahead of you?

Nowadays, thanks to the proliferation of personal electronic devices, new storage technology, Wi-Fi, and streaming video, passengers are enjoying a bewildering array of content choices for keeping themselves entertained from gate to gate. And the number of choices just keeps growing.

This week, Virgin America fired the latest salvo, announcing new in-flight content partnerships with the Spotify online music service and with The New York Times. On Virgin aircraft equipped with the new ViaSat Wi-Fi, Spotify users will have free streaming access to the service’s entire catalogue of more than 30 million songs. (Virgin and Spotify even pulled together dozens of playlists themed to various destination cities; you can see them at www.virginamerica.com/spotify) .

At the same time, The New York Times partnership will provide passengers with a selection of articles including breaking news, business news, travel, technology, and a list of “most viewed” stories, available for reading through any Wi-Fi linked device on ViaSat-equipped flights. The new content partnerships come on the heels of Virgin America’s recent announcement that flyers on those ViaSat aircraft will also be able to stream shows from the Netflix programming roster at no cost through March 2.

(Currently, there are only two Virgin planes outfitted with ViaSat, but it should have 10 by next summer.)

Content options continue to proliferate at other airlines as well. For instance:

JetBlue, which just finished installing high-speed “Fly-Fi” Wi-Fi service on its A320/321 fleet, has a new partnership with Amazon that will let Amazon Prime members stream movies and TV shows in-flight — as well as audio from a million songs in the Amazon Prime Music service. JetBlue also recently inked a contract with Major League Baseball that lets passengers stream live, real time game broadcasts from all 30 teams at their seats.

United recently announced expanded content from HBO for in-flight streaming to personal electronic devices (PEDs), with full seasons of top-rated shows like Entourage, Game of Thrones and True Detective. The carrier also said it has teamed up with Vevo to give passengers free access to hundreds of music videos and concert performances. And it has started deploying PED streaming entertainment on its fleet of 120 Wi-Fi equipped regional jets (E170s, E175s and CRJ700s). (Me, Earl and the Dying Girl had seatmate and I all weepy last night on a United ATL-SFO transcon)

Rather read than watch or listen? Global Eagle Entertainment, a packager of in-flight content for dozens of airline customers (like Southwest), recently announced it is teaming up with Zinio to make 3,000 magazine titles in 50 languages available to flyers, either by streaming or through seatback systems. The company has also joined with the folks at Lonely Planet to bring 30 of the publisher’s packet travel guides to its in-flight entertainment platform.

And today we’ve learned that Uber plans to offer seat back entertainment, too! Under a new partnership, ten Chevrolet Tahoe cars with AT&T wireless connectivity will do the rounds on four Saturdays in Detroit, Nashville, Houston and Atlanta in October and November. The vehicles will have four tablets in the back of headrests, wireless headsets and phone chargers. Riders can watch a livestream of football games through AT&T’s U-verse TV app on tablets connected to its 4G LTE network. Details here.

Which airline has the best inflight entertainment? Why do you think so? Please leave your comments below!

Netflix in your hotel room? Since the streaming entertainment service Netflix has grown so fast and attracted so many subscribers, wouldn’t it be nice if you could access it while you’re away on business?

Marriott thinks so, and the hotel giant is currently testing the availability of Netflix and other streaming services like Pandora and Hulu in guest rooms at eight of its properties.

Still unknown: Whether Netflix access would come with a fee attached, and if so, how much.

TechCrunch opined, “The hospitality company says that it’s part of an effort to renew the idea of in-room entertainment, and if offering Netflix means we don’t have to sift through the glitchy, slow world of LodgeNet, it’s a win-win for the consumer.”

I think I’d rather just cuddle up on the hotel bed with my iPad to watch Netflix or other streaming services– but of course that is dependent on the mostly undependable wi-fi connection at most hotels.

Would you use Netflix or other streaming services in your hotel/ If so, how much would you pay for it?

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Which country boasts this gorgeous design on passport pages including the North Star, Moon and Northern Lights? Scroll to bottom for full story!

AIRLINES

Just in time for the busy holidays, United has (finally) extended its new onboard streaming service to Android users. Apple iPhone and iPad users (as well as those on any laptop) have been able to give the new service a try since last spring. To use it, you must first download the United app from the Google Play or Apple App store in order to watch a variety free TV shows and movies while in flight on nearly 200 United aircraft, including its entire Airbus A319, Airbus A320 and Boeing 747 fleets and its Boeing 777 flying between the mainland and Hawaii. For the full story on inflight streaming, see this recent TravelSkills post: BYOD Entertainment on Planes. Have you tried United’s inflight streaming product yet? How did that go for you?

You are reading Part 2 of this week’s Catch Up in Travel News from TravelSkills. Here’s Part 1

AIRPORTS

NEW RAIL LINK UP & RUNNING. BART’s new Oakland airport service got off to a wet start last Saturday — with crews forced to squeegee off rain that had blown in and flooded the airport station platform — but nothing could dampen the enthusiasm of its jubilant first-day riders, according to SFgate.com “It was great, it was wonderful, it was easy, quick and cheap,” said one rider. New automated trains will transport riders from BART’s Coliseum station to the new Oakland Airport station every five minutes during peak hours; the ride takes eight minutes. The ride from the Coliseum station to/from downtown SF takes about 25 minutes. BART fares between the new Oakland Airport station and downtown San Francisco are $10.05. More…

A rendering of the future look for United’s Concourse C in Newark (Image: OTG)

Big-name chefs coming to EWR. United Airlines and development partner OTG Management have revealed more plans for the ongoing overhaul of Terminal C at Newark Liberty International Airport. Not only is the revamped facility bringing in new restaurants from a number of high-visibility chefs, but travelers will be able to use their MileagePlus miles to pay for food and drinks through some of the 6,000 iPads that will be deployed in the terminal’s restaurants, bars and gate areas. The headliner restaurant will be chef Alaine Ducasse’s Saison, a French bistro; others include a French country eatery from Alex Guarnaschelli; an Italian steakhouse from Mario Carbone, and a surf bar and sushi outlet from Josh Capon.

Taxi turmoil at SFO. Organized taxi drivers clogged up the roadways outside passenger terminals at San Francisco International one night last week to protest the airport’s recent decisions to let app-based ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft operate there. And members of the Taxi Workers Alliance are threatening to repeat the curbside chaos at SFO “again and again” unless the airport changes its policy. Meanwhile, a top Uber executive stirred up a mini-scandal after word leaked out that he had threatened to start digging up dirt on journalists who write negative stories about the company. Would negative publicity about Uber make you less likely to use their service? Put your comments below.

Lobby remake at LAX. Delta has finished the renovation of its Sky Priority lobby at Los Angeles International’s Terminal 5. Take a look at the before and after photos.

HOTELS

New fees coming at Hilton, Marriott. Effective January 1, Hilton and Marriott will impose a new standard cancellation fee — a single night’s room rate — on no-show guests unless they have cancelled their bookings at least the day before scheduled arrival. If individual hotels within the groups already have more restrictive cancellation policies, those will remain in effect. Not all chains are adopting a uniform policy; e.g., things are unchanged at Best Western, a spokesperson said, where cancellation policies vary by the rate booked and the individual hotel’s policy; policies are listed under each rate bookable on bw.com.

This is what Norway’s passport pages look like in normal light. (Image: Neue)

This is what the pages of Norway’s new passport look like in normal light. The darker image above (scroll to top), which reveals the north star and northern lights, is only visible under UV light. Beautiful! (Full story from CNN here)

You are reading Part 2 of this week’s Catch Up in Travel News from TravelSkills. Here’s Part 1

Editor Chris McGinnis

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